Contributors

May 16, 2008

The Source is the Source, My Lover

Doctor Who: The Doctor's Daughter

Let's get this out of
the way first. Yes Georgia Moffett is pretty. In fact not just
pretty but, as Clive James once said of someone else, so pretty that
she makes you want to burst out cheering. And it's hard to
separate her good looks from the sheer verve of a performance that
even managed to match Tennant's level of energy. She was great,
but I'm just thankful the production team cast the part so well,
because she was the saving grace of a story that was certainly not
pretty. Unless pretty terrible counts. It's doubtless a good
thing that we're getting to see another alien planet (two in four
episodes!), and this story was undeniably reminiscent of old-school
Who. Sadly the old school in question was Bob Baker and Dave
Martin's Underworld. "The source is the source" kept
running through my brain, especially when General Cobb/Farmer
Barleymow's rich West Country tones made the Bristol Boys' influence
seem even stronger. In my book, Underworld is still Underworld,
no matter how you package it. As the final credits zapped by, I
felt that I'd watched an experimental attempt to make an episode of
Doctor Who which really did entirely consist of people running around
corridors shouting expository dialogue at each other.

shit stew

Did any
of it actually make sense apart from anything else? The
week-long war was a nice idea for a first draft, but how do you account for the older
people like Farmer Barleymow? Does the processing machine pop
people out at any age between 16 and 75? How does that work?
The machine may give them military intelligence and training, but how
do people rise through the ranks? And do the two tribes employ
the world's most efficient funeral directors? Thousands dead and not
a hint of cholera anywhere. If that isn't enough of a shit stew to
be going on with, then stir in fish that drown and David Tennant
saying paradox. That word is now starting to be almost as irritating
as "deadlock". I was at least hopeful that Martha or
Donna might greet the Doctor's gobbledygook about why the TARDIS was
dragged to Messaline in the first place with a well-placed "What
the fuck are you on about?", but just muttering "paradox"
was enough to stop them in their tracks. There's a certain
glibness on occasion in Doctor Who which really irritates me and Tennant's at his worse with those kind of lines.

I'd rather play nude hunt-the-thimble with Ian Levine in a vat
of jelly than watch Doctor Who Confidential

Take the creation of Jenny. Now I've
heard some people say that the pre-credits sequence was deliberately
bathetic – a way of cocking a snook at the frenzy of fan
speculation concerning her origins. This seems unlikely to me,
but as I'd rather play nude hunt-the-thimble with Ian Levine in a vat
of jelly than watch Doctor Who Confidential I guess it'll be a while
until I discover how the story was commissioned. Did Davies simply say to
Greenhorn that he wanted an adventure where the Doctor discovered he
had a daughter? Or did Greenhorn already have a burning ambition to
write a story about a seven day war and soldiers born as adults, and
saw a great opportunity to have the Doctor sire a soldier. I suspect
the former, but aside from all the logical inconsistencies of the
plot, the resulting story lacked any real drama. Jenny had only been
conjured up for a matter of seconds before we were supposed to care
about her and also believe that the Doctor would really go through the
pangs of parenthood. As it is, it wasn't hard for the viewer to care about
Jenny because the character was excellently cast and, to put it
bluntly, she was “well-fit” as I believe today's youth
would say. But that had nothing to do with the story itself which
was framed in such a “let's run down another corridor while venting
an info-dump” way that it did it's very best to make you
totally indifferent to the characters.

Preferably after having illicitly dipped his wick.

No-one would pretend that
The Face of
Evil is an example of great television drama, but it's a similar
kind of story to The Doctor's Daughter with its warring tribes descended
from generations of people that cannot remember their original
purpose. In the older story, the Doctor bears responsibility for
creating the problem in the first place and has to redeem his past actions by restoring sanity and helping the tribes live in peace.
How much better would The Doctor's Daughter have been if Jenny came
about as a result of a long ago previous visit from the Doctor?
Preferably after having illicitly dipped his wick. The drama then
would have been about his unknowing abandonment of Jenny and
her resentment at being left to fend for herself in a violent world,
plus her shock when the Doctor returns. Then at least she would have
had a real life in a real place for some time, rather than being
magicked out of nowhere and leaping over lasers before you have time to
ask her out for dinner.

While all this was going on
poor old Martha had been given the new series equivalent of the delta
wave augmenter and was sent to fishy Coventry. After her Torchwood
appearances, Freema probably thought that things couldn't get any
worse. Until she found herself separated from the main cast while being
fondled by the least convincing monsters since Ricky Gervais's slug in
Extras. The whole thing got even madder when Martha effectively
bullied the friendly fish to death by forcing him out into a hostile
environment where he rapidly (and mysteriously) drowned. She was upset
for about five seconds, but seemed happy enough when she bumped into
the Doctor. Maybe close proximity to the fishes temporarily gives you
the same memory span? It certainly affected the Doctor. After all his
crying, snarling and shouting about the death of his daughter, he
pissed off without waiting for the funeral. I can remember when the
Doctor used to hang around for a funeral even when they were burying botanists that
he hardly knew. Clearly the Time War has changed him. Did you know
about the Time War by the way? Apparently the Doctor was involved.

I can remember when the Doctor used to hang around for a funeral even when they were burying botanists that he hardly knew.

All that aside, I do get the
feeling that there are things going on in each episode which will come
to fruition later in the series, and on a much more subtle level than
the Torchwood and Saxon memes. There seems to be a thematic
consistency across this series even if some of the individual episodes
themselves are a bit ropey. It's clear that Jenny will return, but I'm
sure it will be much more significant than a simple reunion, and it's
hard to believe there won't be some payback for all the references to
the Doctor's interference with time and the mysterious vanishing of
planets. The Doctor's Daughter also had something weird going on in
the background which I was alerted to when reading some forum or other. At
around 10' 47" Jenny can clearly be seen standing in front of something
with a UNIT badge on it. If this is something to do with an
unravelling universe, or the consequence of the Doctor's meddling then
fair play. It's hardly in your face. On the other hand if the
production team can manage to include a drowning fish, then it's not
beyond the realms of possibility that they simply used the wrong bit of
set. Stay tuned!

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The Source is the Source, My Lover

Doctor Who: The Doctor's Daughter

Let's get this out of
the way first. Yes Georgia Moffett is pretty. In fact not just
pretty but, as Clive James once said of someone else, so pretty that
she makes you want to burst out cheering. And it's hard to
separate her good looks from the sheer verve of a performance that
even managed to match Tennant's level of energy. She was great,
but I'm just thankful the production team cast the part so well,
because she was the saving grace of a story that was certainly not
pretty. Unless pretty terrible counts. It's doubtless a good
thing that we're getting to see another alien planet (two in four
episodes!), and this story was undeniably reminiscent of old-school
Who. Sadly the old school in question was Bob Baker and Dave
Martin's Underworld. "The source is the source" kept
running through my brain, especially when General Cobb/Farmer
Barleymow's rich West Country tones made the Bristol Boys' influence
seem even stronger. In my book, Underworld is still Underworld,
no matter how you package it. As the final credits zapped by, I
felt that I'd watched an experimental attempt to make an episode of
Doctor Who which really did entirely consist of people running around
corridors shouting expository dialogue at each other.

shit stew

Did any
of it actually make sense apart from anything else? The
week-long war was a nice idea for a first draft, but how do you account for the older
people like Farmer Barleymow? Does the processing machine pop
people out at any age between 16 and 75? How does that work?
The machine may give them military intelligence and training, but how
do people rise through the ranks? And do the two tribes employ
the world's most efficient funeral directors? Thousands dead and not
a hint of cholera anywhere. If that isn't enough of a shit stew to
be going on with, then stir in fish that drown and David Tennant
saying paradox. That word is now starting to be almost as irritating
as "deadlock". I was at least hopeful that Martha or
Donna might greet the Doctor's gobbledygook about why the TARDIS was
dragged to Messaline in the first place with a well-placed "What
the fuck are you on about?", but just muttering "paradox"
was enough to stop them in their tracks. There's a certain
glibness on occasion in Doctor Who which really irritates me and Tennant's at his worse with those kind of lines.

I'd rather play nude hunt-the-thimble with Ian Levine in a vat
of jelly than watch Doctor Who Confidential

Take the creation of Jenny. Now I've
heard some people say that the pre-credits sequence was deliberately
bathetic – a way of cocking a snook at the frenzy of fan
speculation concerning her origins. This seems unlikely to me,
but as I'd rather play nude hunt-the-thimble with Ian Levine in a vat
of jelly than watch Doctor Who Confidential I guess it'll be a while
until I discover how the story was commissioned. Did Davies simply say to
Greenhorn that he wanted an adventure where the Doctor discovered he
had a daughter? Or did Greenhorn already have a burning ambition to
write a story about a seven day war and soldiers born as adults, and
saw a great opportunity to have the Doctor sire a soldier. I suspect
the former, but aside from all the logical inconsistencies of the
plot, the resulting story lacked any real drama. Jenny had only been
conjured up for a matter of seconds before we were supposed to care
about her and also believe that the Doctor would really go through the
pangs of parenthood. As it is, it wasn't hard for the viewer to care about
Jenny because the character was excellently cast and, to put it
bluntly, she was “well-fit” as I believe today's youth
would say. But that had nothing to do with the story itself which
was framed in such a “let's run down another corridor while venting
an info-dump” way that it did it's very best to make you
totally indifferent to the characters.

Preferably after having illicitly dipped his wick.

No-one would pretend that
The Face of
Evil is an example of great television drama, but it's a similar
kind of story to The Doctor's Daughter with its warring tribes descended
from generations of people that cannot remember their original
purpose. In the older story, the Doctor bears responsibility for
creating the problem in the first place and has to redeem his past actions by restoring sanity and helping the tribes live in peace.
How much better would The Doctor's Daughter have been if Jenny came
about as a result of a long ago previous visit from the Doctor?
Preferably after having illicitly dipped his wick. The drama then
would have been about his unknowing abandonment of Jenny and
her resentment at being left to fend for herself in a violent world,
plus her shock when the Doctor returns. Then at least she would have
had a real life in a real place for some time, rather than being
magicked out of nowhere and leaping over lasers before you have time to
ask her out for dinner.

While all this was going on
poor old Martha had been given the new series equivalent of the delta
wave augmenter and was sent to fishy Coventry. After her Torchwood
appearances, Freema probably thought that things couldn't get any
worse. Until she found herself separated from the main cast while being
fondled by the least convincing monsters since Ricky Gervais's slug in
Extras. The whole thing got even madder when Martha effectively
bullied the friendly fish to death by forcing him out into a hostile
environment where he rapidly (and mysteriously) drowned. She was upset
for about five seconds, but seemed happy enough when she bumped into
the Doctor. Maybe close proximity to the fishes temporarily gives you
the same memory span? It certainly affected the Doctor. After all his
crying, snarling and shouting about the death of his daughter, he
pissed off without waiting for the funeral. I can remember when the
Doctor used to hang around for a funeral even when they were burying botanists that
he hardly knew. Clearly the Time War has changed him. Did you know
about the Time War by the way? Apparently the Doctor was involved.

I can remember when the Doctor used to hang around for a funeral even when they were burying botanists that he hardly knew.

All that aside, I do get the
feeling that there are things going on in each episode which will come
to fruition later in the series, and on a much more subtle level than
the Torchwood and Saxon memes. There seems to be a thematic
consistency across this series even if some of the individual episodes
themselves are a bit ropey. It's clear that Jenny will return, but I'm
sure it will be much more significant than a simple reunion, and it's
hard to believe there won't be some payback for all the references to
the Doctor's interference with time and the mysterious vanishing of
planets. The Doctor's Daughter also had something weird going on in
the background which I was alerted to when reading some forum or other. At
around 10' 47" Jenny can clearly be seen standing in front of something
with a UNIT badge on it. If this is something to do with an
unravelling universe, or the consequence of the Doctor's meddling then
fair play. It's hardly in your face. On the other hand if the
production team can manage to include a drowning fish, then it's not
beyond the realms of possibility that they simply used the wrong bit of
set. Stay tuned!